While trying to halt superfluous packaging, NORMA has again taken an important step. From the end of January, the discounter from Nuremberg will sell its private label Bio-Fairtrade bananas 'Bio Sun' without any packaging. The bananas are now given a banderole, informing customers about the origin and sustainability of the coveted tropical fruits.
Fairtrade label
With this assortment innovation, the NORMA branches are further expanding their high-quality range of organically produced, strictly controlled foods, in the fresh produce sector as well. The bananas -grown in the Dominican Republic- are immediately recognizable by the state's organic label and Fairtrade label. It has to be easy for customers to distinguish them from conventionally grown bananas, but NORMA no longer uses packaging for its organic and Fairtrade bananas. Instead, a informative banderole is used, containing product 
information about origin and sustainability. The environmental benefit is doubly effective and obvious: The NORMA customer buys first-class organic and Fairtrade bananas and saves 50 percent of the plastic packaging material used to date.
The Fairtrade label identifies all foods that come from fair trade and that take into account the social, environmental and economic criteria from the start of cultivation through to the harvest and marketing. This way, the Fairtrade organization helps farmers (not infrequently smallholders and cooperatives) in Africa, Asia or Latin America to make an equitable, self-determined and environmentally friendly investment in their own future. Farmers benefit from the special Fairtrade Premium, which finances projects to improve their day-to-day lives: education, health care, housing optimization and measures to increase productivity are tangible benefits for small farmers.
Packaging minimization
Together with its partners, NORMA upholds clear sustainability principles throughout its supply chain. As far as bananas are concerned, maturing, which is important for the quality of this sensitive product, takes place only in the most modern ripening plants in Germany. In these maturing facilities, most of the energy used is self-produced and therefore climate-friendly.
In the course of rapid packaging minimization, NORMA reduces product packaging, outer packaging and plastic containers step by step in all assortment and logistics areas. Customers are informed regularly on any new measures.